South Hill Park hoping for eco-cash to cut energy costs

Cash-strapped South Hill Park has applied for thousands of pounds in funding in a bid to go green.

The arts centre put in an application for a £388,000 grant to the Arts Council, along with eco-friendly plans which aim to save the Birch Hill centre between £20,000 and £30,000 a year.

Ron McAllister, chief executive, said: “We want to make sure every penny spent in the arts is not wasted through draughty windows so we had to look at everything we consume and everything we could save.

“We are concerned about sustainability and renewal and want to cut out waste and cut out wasted energy.”

The centre faced crisis last year when it stopped receiving regular funding from the Arts Council and must find alternative cash sources.

One way of doing this was to apply for project funding through the Arts Council’s capital programme.

Mr McAllister said: “We had surveys done and consultations from energy experts and found our running costs could be reduced significantly by £20,000 to £30,000 a year.”

The plans include 23 solar panels on the roof, which would be cleverly hidden to be in keeping with the historical building.

Staff will hear whether the bid has been successful next month, and are now working on plans to digitalise the cinema.

By 2014, films will be sent via the internet so the cinema needs to be adapted to show them in a digital format.

Mr McAllister explained: “We will need £70,000 to £100,000 depending on whether we choose to go 3D so we need to predict the popularity of 3D films in the future.”

The development team has applied for grants from the Foyle Foundation and there are plans to launch a fundraising campaign, which will see bucket collections after film showings at the cinema.

In a bid to balance the books for 2013/2014, South Hill Park staff have invited all the parish and town councils in the borough to donate £10,000 to support the arts.

Mr McAllister added he would like to thank all the supporters who continue to donate each year.